1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to stringed musical instruments and, more particularly, to an elongated string support for strings of a stringed musical instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stringed musical instruments, such as guitars, generally include a body formed with an elongated string support, typically known as a “neck”, for strings and a headstock at one end of the neck. The strings are tensioned over a bridge on the body at one end and a nut at the other end adjacent the headstock. The headstock usually incorporates a string tension adjusting mechanism. The neck typically includes a fretboard or finger-board which provides a player of the stringed musical instrument with a choice of selecting individual notes or chords by depressing manually the string or strings onto the finger-board, thereby effectively shortening them.
The practice of string bending is extremely common among players of stringed musical instruments. The reason for bending strings is to actively raise the pitch of a note over time, creating a desirable audio effect. Some players bend strings predominately in an upward direction (i.e., pushing the higher strings up) while others bend strings predominately in a downward direction (i.e., pulling the lower strings down).
Conventionally, the neck and finger-board are formed so as to lie in a straight plane which remains fixed in relation to a plane of the body and without any twisting. Stringed musical instrument manufactures have always placed a heavy emphasis on the straightness and accuracy of the neck and finger-board. The accuracy with which the neck is manufactured is important in providing an acceptable “action” or relationship between the strings and the finger-board whether fretted or fretless. However, the traditional straight neck can cause the player to suffer stress of the wrist joint when accessing complex chord formations particularly at the distal end of the head-stock, due to the need for continuous finger-hand-wrist adjustment coupled with a high degree of wrist flexion. This continued excessive flexion of the wrist can cause a range of repetitive strain injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, tendonitis, and tenosynovitis. These injuries are well documented as common in professional and frequent recreational players of stringed musical instruments.
One attempt to solve the above has been to relate the neck relative to the bridge on the body of the stringed musical instrument. Such an example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,260 to Burrell. This patent discloses a stringed musical instrument having a bridge and neck rotated relative to one another about a longitudinal axis of the neck. The bridge may be flat or crowned. The stringed musical instrument has a fretboard twisted progressively throughout its length to correspond to the rotation.
One disadvantage of the above-patented stringed musical instrument is that during the actual playing of the instrument with such a neck/finger-board, the player can inadvertently and undesirably “choke” the vibration of the strings while undertaking the common practice of “bending” strings. For example, the string or strings being fretted and “bent” down will invariably come into contact with one or more of the higher frets, thus “choking” or damping the string's vibrations and inevitably causing the strings to buzz against the higher frets or stopping the sustain of the note completely. This disadvantage is even more apparent if the action of the stringed musical instrument has been set very low, i.e., the strings are adjusted to be as close as possible to the frets. This disadvantage also arises when players of such a stringed musical instrument generate vibrato effects by both pushing and pulling the fretted strings across the frets rapidly.
To solve these disadvantages, an elongated string support has been provided for the stringed musical instrument with a finger-board surface that follows a longitudinally twisted path and has a non-uniform radius on the elongated string support. Such an example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,249 to Steinberg et al. This patent discloses a stringed musical instrument having an elongated string support including a finger-board surface having a bass side and a treble side and extending between a proximal end and a distal end relative to the stringed musical instrument to support strings in close proximity thereto. The elongated string support follows a longitudinally twisted path with an angle of twist increasing progressively from the proximal end to the distal end. The finger-board surface has a non-uniform radius extending between at least either one of the bass side and the treble side and one of the proximal end and the distal end.
One disadvantage of the above patented elongated string support is that it is difficult to manufacture the elongated string support and body of the stringed musical instrument as one-piece. Another disadvantage is that finger-board geometry for the low E, A, and D strings causes the strings to buzz according to a particular playing style. Yet another disadvantage is that a saddle on the bridge is set at a maximum height for the low E string, thus eliminating any adjustability of the saddle.